Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions Featuring Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, "Pigpen" – Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions (199)
Label: Grateful Dead Records – GDCD 4064
In 1964, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron McKernan and three other comrades formed a jug band, where they played all sorts of famous blues and folk music acoustically. A year later, this team, having slightly changed the composition of the participants, transformed into a group named Warlocks, and then renamed the well-known Grateful Dead.
Regarding the origin of the tricky name:
Mother McCree is probably a reference to the early 20th century American song "Mother Machree".
Jug is a type of folk where not only musical instruments are used to produce sound, but also all sorts of suitable and inappropriate household items of American rednecks. “Jug” literally translates as “jug.” In the arsenal of Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, there was a washboard, a whistle, all sorts of pots, jugs, pans and glasses, and also a mop with a single string attached to it (instead of a bass guitar or double bass).
Normal instruments included: acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica and kazoo.
Jerry Garcia - guitar, kazoo, banjo,vocals
Ron "PigPen" McKernan - harmonica, vocals
Bob Weir - guitar, washtub bass, footcrasher, jug, kazoo, vocals
Dave Parker - washboard, kazoo, tin cup, vocals
Tom Stone - banjo, mandolin, guitar, vocals
Mike Garbett - washtub bass, guitar, kazoo
In the spring and summer of 1964, the Jug champions and their belongings regularly played at the folk cafe The Tangent in their hometown of Palo Alto, California. 2 posters of their performances there and the club’s concert menu-program have been preserved.
This live recording, made at Stanford University in 1964, should be of interest not only to fans of folk and blues, but especially to “fans” of the Grateful Dead.
The fact is that some of the guys who cheerfully play guitars, mandolin, banjo, harmonica, kazoos and other obscure instruments made from improvised household materials later organized The Warlocks and later The Grateful Dead group.
One day they were invited to play at Stanford on some local show broadcast on local radio, and students Pete Wanger and Wayne Ott also managed to record this performance.
With the coming fame of 'The Grateful Dead', these recordings gained value, but alas, they were lost. And only in 1997 they were accidentally found in the attic of Pete Wanger’s parental home. The recordings were professionally “varnished” and published in 1999.
The sound quality here is certainly not very good, but not terrible either. But the quality of the material and the liveliness of the performance are at their best. The spirit of the jug bands of the 20-30s is perfectly conveyed, both folk (traditional) songs and songs of the “classics of the genre” are performed - Lightnin’ Hopkins, Jess Fuller, Charlie Jackson, Jimmie Rodgers, and even Chuck Berry’s hit of that time is present (“Memphis” , Tennessee').
Information sources :
And a very interesting review in russian (use auto-period) including an interview with the group. I recommend it.
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